Christin's Words from Sunshine Hill

If it is to be music

you must be present to it, must offer to it

a profound self-remembering.

-from Altar Music

Saturday, July 23, 2016

A Summertime of Politics and Paradox

I woke this morning to sunlight and
this glorious natural world of which I am part. From nature all around and
within me I can learn. It is summer and the plants and animals are experiencing
the paradox of maturity—that withering and death cannot be separated from the still
emerging new life. The deer are eating some wildflowers down to their
roots. The oak tree by the deck will not
make it into the next season. I ponder how it is essential to hold all of it
together in both mind and heart, and this thought immediately spins me a degree
further around to the present condition of the human world, the consciousness
of which is also caught in paradox.

The world is caught up this summer in
the sometimes creative, often insane dialectic of a USA National Election, with
its always carnival-like conventions that showcase with thick irony issues of
global mass creation or destruction. I’m not a political person, so I can
barely suffer these days, and yet I watch them, ponder them, participate in
them, because I want to understand as best as is possible for me, what we are
in for. I know it is a world event because what we do as a nation affects the
entire world. One World is now a fact. Isolation is no longer an option where
information travels at the speed of thought.

I’m not a political person, so I’m no
expert in political science, nor economic theory, environmental science, civil
and legal rights, and the rest. It seems to me that each of us has the
opportunity and responsibility to approach our electoral choice from the base
of experience, education, and frame of reference we know best. That is our gift
to the world. For me that means from the focus of the human soul and mystical
spirit. What effect does a candidate’s world view and political platform have
on what I know about the human soul, both individually and as a world?

When all of us are combined we should be able to present to the electoral process a wholeness of perspective. If you are a mom,
be the nation and world’s mom; if you own a business, vote what’s best for the
business of the world; If a farmer, see that the land is cared for so that the
peoples might be fed; if a teacher, seek and spread and support the truth; and
so forth…you get my meaning.

From my own perspective I would need to
choose people and policies that

-Integrate rather that separate, divide,
exclude

-See morality as complex rather than simplistic

-Are able to distinguish legality from
morality

-Embrace opposites and opposition rather
than attempting to eliminate them

-Promote rational thinking and heartfelt
compassion rather than fear and rejection at all levels of individual, communal, national and international discourse and interaction

-Honor mistakes as essential to the creative
process, and as openings to new ways of thinking.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Beautifully said, as always.People always complain the choice is between the lesser of two evils. But that's to concentrate on the personalities and not on the issues which you reinforce so well. The vote is an opportunity to affirm what each of us believes, imperfectly but importantly. May we do it bravely and with hope."God bless us, every one!"BPS

Thanks, BPS, for your comment, and because I know who you are I just want to say that Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida are key states, so your own bravery and hope and that of your friends are particularly important.

I am grateful for your thoughts, so lovingly expressed. Yes, of course! We can look to our own values in our everyday lives as a guide to how to vote and how to move through this chaotic time. I love it that you bring us back to nature and to the cycles we see. We do not need to run or hide in fear. We can accept the process of transformation.

The Root of Beauty

THE EDGE OF TENDERNESS

THE BLUE SHAWL

The FarNear Journals

GYPSY BONES

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About Me

I'm a writer and observer of beauty in nature and people, a singer of praise and a dreamer who stares into both light and darkness hoping to see someday the Face of God.
My journey has led from the northern lakes, to a convent on the prairie, to lifelong education including a doctorate in ministry, to a vocation of midwifery of souls, to this place, Casa Chiara, where the light shines and John Sack and I join our lives, care for nature, pray and contemplate, study and write.
Published Works:
THE ROOT OF BEAUTY: A SPIRITUAL MEMOIR, THE EDGE OF TENDERNESS: A MEMOIR, THE BLUE SHAWL,THE FARNEAR JOURNALS, GYPSY BONES,
ALTAR MUSIC,
CIRCLE OF MYSTERIES,
WOMANCHRIST,
BLESSINGS,
FINDING STONE,
CARING COMMUNITY,
A CRY IN THE DESERT.
Los Angeles Times Best Novel of 2000 for ALTAR MUSIC.
Recipient of four prizes/commendations for CIRCLE OF MYSTERIES.